THE STEAMSHIP

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 65, 14 September 1933, Page 13

THE STEAMSHIP

MAKING HISTORY

| CENTURY OF PROGRESS

ATLANTIC SERVICE

One hundred years ago, tho nautical authorities of/ those parts of tho world that really mattered were moved to indignant concern by the suggestion that steamors should be pormitted to cross tho Atlantic on regular service. It was a version of tho type of prejudico which is based, on faith unshaken in tho old and unshakable disbelief in the new. "A crossAtlautie steamer service is a 'physical impossibility," they declared.

The opinion expressed so definitely lay those who should have- known may justifiably be considered extraordinary when the developments which wero taking place a century ago aro realised. In 1707, Denis Papin devised a steamengine to drive the paddle-wheels of a small boat on the river Fulda, in Prussia. It was apparently not a brilliant success, and the following fifty years did not materially assist the- causo^of steam propulsion. However, in 1769 James Watt patented an cngino which was the.first to be of any real scrvico to navigation. Froin that time- on, men—-with the probable exception of the nautical authorities —were busy improving an engine suitable for use in vessels. BETTER AND BETTER. Dreams wore beginning to materialise when the tug Charlotte Duudas was . constructed in 1802 by William Symington for the purpose of towing barges on the Forth and Clyde Canal. luterest . apparently ceased, howovcr, when the engineers had done their bit. Nautical authority stopped into the breach, pointing iout that owing to the vessel's speed the canal banks were likely to bo damaged by the wash. So tho Charlotte Dundas was allowed to rust away in idleness, though her trials liad proved highly satisfactory. Vessels equipped only with steam, nnd not carrying sails as well, did'not iiguro largely in marine history for some time after this. Clcrmout, Comet, and Phoenix aro names inseparably associated with the early stages of eteam navigation. Eobert Fulton's Cleriuont was the most daring enterprise of its day. Not only had Fulton contrived to put an engine into his ship, but ho had decided to run her in a regular passenger servico between New York and Albany. This servico was inaugurated on August 11, 1807. The Clermont was 133ft long, and had a beam of.lßft and a depth of 7ft. The first steamer to venture into the open 3ea was the Phoenix, which made nu epoch-making journey in 1304. She was a little screw boat equipped by her 'designer, J. C. Stephens, with a Watts engine and a tubular boiler. At this time Fulton was watching British and French experiments closely, and after some abortive. efforts on his own part on the Seine he returned to America, • convinced o£ the merits of steam. To a design of his own he had an engine made by Boulton and Watt, and this engine was placed in the Clermont. Its efficacy did not shako general nautical opinion. Neither did Bell's passenger steamer Comet, which began to run on the Clyde in 1912, and for some years Ihe use of steam was confined to tugs. and river craft, and to small passenger . yessels constructed for short .voyages,', such, as coasters and cross-channel packets.. „..'...,. , ~,,;, ~ ..,,',, ' Toyticeaa'.voyages'steam, wa s. regard-" fed, even in':the- most favourable light',', as nothing inoro than.:an. auxiliary!,to eaii. .'.' ■ ... ....:..- ■,■..-•■■; IFIRST TO CROSS THE ATLANTIC. '- As history*-shows, this-view-was quite legitimate. The Sa'vannahy the first steamer to make the transatlantic trip, had to resort to saii eighteen days out from port when her fuel of pitch-pine lad run out. She cleared the port after ■which she was named on May 19, 1819, and thirty-three days, later reached Liverpool. The time was a- record for vessels equipped with steam propuleion: there could be no argument about that. ■ Fourteen years elapsed before a ship crossed the Atlantic with no means •of progress other than steam. Sho was the Eoyal William, and had been launched at Quebec in 1831. Slio left Pictou, Nova Scotia, on August 17, 1833, and exactly a hundred years.ago 1 l>3t Monday (September 11) she reached England. It was a new record—2G ; days'! That-such a trip can now be 'made in four days and a half is but a .•commentary on the progress of mcchani'■tal propulsion at sea. The Spanish Government is on record .•as being the first national authority to put,a steam, engine into a warship. The ship was the Isabella,Segunda. In spite of the progress which, had lieen. made, public opinion was still against the use of engines in tho transatlantic service, The general view winch prevailed as late as 1835 was that the iflea- was impracticable. PROGRESS UNDETERRED.

Three years later the Great Western and three other British ships made the passage to America under steam. In 1836 a company had been formed to provide a regular passenger service between England and the United States, but tho builders of the engines of the pioneer ship got into financial difficulties and a rival undertaking threatened to bo first in the field with tho Great Western. Rather than bo forestalled in their venturo they chartered the Irish cross-channel steamer Sirius from the St. George Steam Packet Company and dispatched hor from London te New York, via Cork. At Cork she picked up mails and 94 passengers, and. she made tho crossing in about 19 days, arriving on April. 22, 1838, a few hours before the .Great Western. The , Sirius was a vessel of 700 tons and 320 horse-power. , Another early stager in the Atlantic business was tho Royal William, belonging to the City of Dublin Company, and not to be confused with Ihe Canadian vessel mentioned previously. "When she sailed from, the Mersey for New York she earned no cargo, but had 32 passengers, and her decks were so stacked with coal that those on board could reach over tho bulwarks and lavo their hands in the sea. Her 'outward trip occupied 19 days, but she *anio home in 14$ days.

In 1340 the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (now. the Cunard S.S. Co.), having secured a mail contract, began a regular fortnightly servico with four paddle steamers of about 1150 tons each.

The British Queen traded in the service and carried a crew of 100 men. She took 600 tons of coal, and did the trip in 14 days 8 hours. Another famous steamer associated with the transatlantic trade was the Great Britain. She was built of iron in 1849, and was unlike other vessels hitherto in usej in that she was propelled, not t>y paddles, but by an ATehimedean screw. She made two passages across the Atlantic, and was stranded when on her third trip. After remaining aground for about a year the Great Britain was floated off, and subsequent ♦xamlnation showed her. hull to be undamaged. She was recommissioned, and fitted with new machinery, and was engaged in the Australian trade for many years. Later she was converted into • tailing vessel, and was finally w/ecked in 1890 at the Falkland I*lan<te. Kefereiwes-to■-these early; steamers

would by no meang lie complete with, out some mention .made of; the last word in ■white elophants or: her day— the Great Eastern. Sho was laid down in 1854, and was originally to have Been named Leviathan. Until the White Star liner Oceanic appeared in 1899 no vessel ever constructed equalled her in size. After many difficulties she "was launched in 1858. Her length was 6973ft, her breadth was 'S2Jft, and hor draught 31}ft, giving her a- gross tonaago of 18,914. Tho Great Eastern had paddle engines of 1000 nominal horse-power, and screw engines of 1700 nominal horse-power. In appearanco §ho was unique. The upper deck ran her whole1 length, there being no important superstructure to break the line. She carried six masts and four funnels, tho latter being placed along the dock at irregular intervals. The Great Eastern mado several voyages to America at a great loss; she was admittedly unsuited to tho North Atlantic trade, for which sho had not originally been built. Sho was finally changed into a cablo ship, and redeemed her character somewhat by laying the Atlantic cable. In 1888 sho was sold at auction in Liverpool to be, broken up. BRITAIN TAKES THE LEAD. The years between tho 1830 's and tho end of the century wore a time of wonderful progress for the steamship. Now engines, the replacing of the paddlo by the screw, and the use of iron and steel instead of wood, -were but part of the development. In 1870"there were already 1,202,134 tons *of steam shipping on British register. Tho United States had only 192,544 tons registered for foreign trade; France had 154,415 tons, and no other country had so much, as 100,000 tons. ■ . ■

After this the declino of the sailing vessel was rapid, being accentuated in the eighties by a change from iron to steel as the material for shipbuilding. In 1870 about 1G per cent, of tho world's tonnage was steam propelled. Twenty years later the proportion grown to 46 per cent., and by 1900 it was 62 per cent.

Great Britain has today more steamers than any other nation of the world. Of a total of 8581 vessels steam propelled in the Empire, Britain has 6734. America comes a poor second with 2929 vessels of this type, and is followed by Japan (1570), Germany (1555), Norway (1546), and Prance (1377). Thero aro nearly 20,000 steamers at present afloat, compared with 4663 motor-ships and 2185 sailing vessels and barges. According to the latest statistics isued by Lloyd's Register of Shipping, thero are 31,700 ships over 100 tons afloat with a total tonnago of 67,920,185. Of this, S67'vessels^ including 479 steamers, totalling 642,459 tons, aro in Australia and New Zealand, i "